"Henri Emile Benoît Matisse was born in a tiny, tumbledown weaver's cottage on the rue du Chêne Arnaud in the textile town of Le Cateau-Cambrésis at eight o'clock in the evening on the last night of the year, 31 December 1869 (Le Cateau-Cambrésis is in the extreme north of France near the Belgian border)." (http://www.henri-matisse.net/biography.html)

Cut-out imagery, inspired by Matisse's work have been popping up on fashion runways recently. And looking at his original work, his color palette looks fresh clean and modern.

"With the aid of his assistants, Matisse invented a systematic approach to the technique of his cut outs.. First, his studio assistants brushed Linel gouaches on sheets of white paper.

Once dry a stockpile of colored paper were available to Matisse at any given time. He often quite spontaneously cut out elements and placed them into compositions. As the play between consciously sought-for and the fortuitously-arrived at effects worked into their balances the projects moved toward completion. In the meantime many of them were posted about the studio walls.

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Finding a whole new direction with dots.

Last one finished. Now just to stitch them on to the slipcovers.

I've been perfecting my no-knots on the surface technique. Not a knot to be seen on this one.

Number 7 is finished. Only one more to go.

Back to the slipcover dots.

My vat is getting better with time. I'm finding those soft blues I was looking for. I'm definitely a fermentation vat convert. The cloth is from headers @turnerartmom scavenged for me on a dumpster dive. No pre-wash, no scour, just straight into the vat.

Back to stitching round things.

I'm stockpiling pomegranates for the dye vat.

When you can't decide between mango and blueberry lassi, make both and use a straw to switch between flavors.

Another of my favorite things about California: walking to the lemon tree in November to make salad dressing.